How to burn an audio CD in iTunes

This article has been archived and is no longer updated by Apple.

If your computer has a CD-R or CD-RW capable drive, including some DVD-R and DVD+R drives, you can make or "burn" an audio CD using iTunes. If you're not sure what kind of drive your computer has, or if it can burn a CD, you can check in Apple System Profiler to find out:

From the Apple menu, choose About This Mac, then click More Info to open System Profiler.

Select IDE (ATA) in the hardware list and scroll to the bottom of the lower-right frame of the page.

Locate Drive Type or Model in the list and check for "CD-RW" or "DVD-RW." If you don't see either of these, your computer does not have a built-in recordable drive.

To burn an audio CD

Open iTunes.

From the iTunes menu, choose Preferences.

Click the Burning button.

Select "Audio CD" as the disc format.

To have iTunes adjust the volume of the songs so they all play at the same level, click the checkbox labeled "Use Sound Check". This can be useful if your playlist has songs from different albums.

Click OK.

Select the playlist you want to burn to the CD. You can only burn a CD from the songs in a playlist.

Click the Burn Disc button, as shown here.

Insert a blank CD-R disc and click Burn Disc again.

Tip: If you plan on playing the CD in a home or car stereo CD player, use a blank CD-R disc. If you're only going to play the CD on your computer, you can use either a blank CD-R disc or a CD-RW disc.

A note about copyright
This software may be used to reproduce materials. It is licensed to you only for reproduction of non-copyrighted materials, materials in which you own the copyright, or materials you are authorized or legally permitted to reproduce. If you are uncertain about your right to copy any material, you should contact your legal advisor.